[narrator] this time on moonshiners...
[digger] look what I found.
Got one of these ultrasonic cleaning machines.
Maybe it'll work with aging liquor.
Finish in 30 minutes, if it works.
This could change the whole industry as we know it.
Might be a little cloudy, though.
Damn it.
[mike] we're going to make jalapeno cornbread.
Man, are you serious?
We're just gonna crumble them up, put them in the barrel.
I think we'll have a damn good run of liquor.
[mike] take a swig.
[sputtering]
[richard] bananas foster.
[man on phone] oh, yeah. That was the premier dessert.
We're gonna make a bananas foster liquor.
We got our bananas, our butter, brown sugar.
The only thing that we stand to lose is our reputation.
[man] this is how we make the moonshine.
[mark] I ain't doubting it.
But you say you've got a notion about how we can age this in two months or less.
You're gonna call me crazy.
Well, that ain't nothing new.
I'm gonna put it on a ufo.
[chuckles]
[narrator] in cocke county, tennessee,
mark and digger are making a batch of barrel-finished rye whiskey
for a client who needs it in two months' time.
We're at the point now in our life,
this is what we enjoy doing.
We like small batch.
You can pay more attention to detail with a smaller batch.
Plus, you know, if it brings bigger money
and you get a premium price for a little bit less liquor,
why wouldn't you make more money off less work?
What we catching? Six, you say?
We're on number six.
[mark] small batch, specialty liquors.
We hope this is what we get to do more of in the future.
But we've promised this liquor in two months.
You know, that's a tall order.
Do you remember them guns that we needed clean?
[mark] uh-huh?
Remember that big tub I had to put that cleaning solution,
that ultrasonic cleaning machine?
Well, I read a little article about ultrasonic aging.
You know, I've got one of these ultrasonic cleaning machines.
I don't use it much.
It causes vibrations,
so anything that gets debris embedded in small crevices,
this is supposed to bring it out.
So, maybe it'll work with aging liquor and some chips.
I got one of them toothbrushes, ultrasonic.
Yeah, same principle.
If it vibrates everything loose,
it's gonna vibrate them tannins and flavors loose, too.
Well, I see that that's got good potential of working.
Tell you how we can do 100 gallon at a time?
Buy 50 of them toothbrushes.
-No. -[chuckles]
put one of them things like they vibrate concrete down around foundations with.
Yeah, but they gotta have an air compressor.
Hell, we've got an air compressor.
Not a big ingersoll rand, great big one that's diesel powered.
Okay, that's a bad idea, mark.
I'm sorry that I come up with something and you shot it all to hell.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt,
but he shoots my idea down immediately,
before he hadn't even thought about it,
and I think maybe it's just because he hasn't went that far in his thinking.
God, you're so temperamental!
He's gotta simmer down. He's getting too cantankerous in his older years.
How do you feel about a little hormone replacement therapy?
-How do you feel like the piss slapped out of you? -[chuckling]
[mark] if you keep on laughing, kick you in your damn ovaries.
[both laughing]
[mark] ultrasonic aging.
There ain't nobody in the moonshining circle doing it.
[digger] no.
If this ultrasonic machine works, we can't do large quantities at a time,
but on small runs, this will be a game changer.
[digger] we got almost seven-and-a-half gallons out of this,
so this isn't a bad run.
This is a high-end client that we very well could get some further sales out of.
So, we get it done fast, we can turn that into dollars quicker.
Alcohol and tasty alcohol.
So we'll put dr. Digger's ultrasonic theory to test.
Yo! Come on, buddy.
-[jerry] what's up, bud? -[mike] what's going on?
-All right. How was the trip? -Good.
[narrator] in sevier county, tennessee, after jerry was hospitalized with an aneurysm,
he and mike moved back to their home state
in an attempt to reboot their season.
It's getting late in the season.
The leaves are starting to turn.
You know, we gotta make some money.
We got a new still site.
We're not trying to make big volumes of alcohol here.
We want to make top-shelf high-dollar premium alcohol.
That's our goal for this season.
You know, less alcohol, but for a higher price.
I got some sugar and some grain.
Got some rye this time. What do you think about that?
Definitely ready to mash in, that's for sure.
But I don't know. I think I want to do a little something different.
Me and jerry, we're the guys that step outside of the box
to try to create something new, different, something good.
Come over here. I want to show you.
We're gonna make jalapeno cornbread.
Man, are you serious?
Everybody out there in the world is making liquor out of all kinds of stuff.
There's a lot of people out there that's like me.
They like different, they like some heat and stuff.
People make liquor out of all kind of stuff these days.
Why not do it out of jalapeno cornbread?
It sounds like a winner to me.
You know how I am with spicy stuff.
Just try it.
You know, if we're selling something out there that no one else has for sale,
we're ahead of the ball then.
-What do you think? -Uh!
[mike] what is it?
Hot almighty!
How the hell can you eat that stuff?
[cackles] what do you think, though?
I mean--
I couldn't taste the cornbread for the hot spicy.
You can't tell me that's too damn hot for you.
You know, jerry's a big, old boy now,
but when it comes to a pepper something, he's a damn crybaby.
I mean, he can look at damn black pepper in a shaker and go to sweating.
I don't know how you do it, man.
You know, when I eat something like a jalapeno,
the sensation I get is like somebody's stuck a red-hot poker in my mouth.
Why would anybody want that in their food or moonshine?
[cackles] what the hell's wrong with you, jerry?
My question is what the hell is wrong with you?
All right, now, look. There's the difference.
Our taste profiles are different.
But there's a lot of people out there in the world
that love this stuff just like I do.
I stand to make a hell of a lot more money
on something different like that.
You think we sell that for more money than we can our rye?
Absolutely.
I don't even know how you'd even mash in jalapeno cornbread.
Make jalapeno cornbread, just like right over there,
crumble it up, mash it in just like you would corn liquor.
You know, that ain't gonna work.
-Why? -We can't put them jalapenos in our wooden barrels, too.
Oh, [bleep].
Jalapenos is a different kind of flavor.
That spicy power it's got, you get that in that wood, you're never getting it out.
It'll be in the taste of everything we do from now on.
By god, that would happen.
We gotta find a way, I guess, to post-flavor the cornbread liquor after the fact.
Well, I do like the sound of that,
'cause that way we can control how hot it is.
The only way we can make this happen is
we're gonna have to actually mash in this cornbread,
and we'll have to post-flavor it.
Cornbread mashed without the jalapenos at first.
We'll flavor it after the fact.
You know, that way we got control of how much spice goes into every jar.
So you're thinking jalapeno cornbread
we can sell for more than our rye?
Absolutely.
You know, I'm willing to give it a shot.
Trust me on this, man!
My man, jerry's just gotta bake all this cornbread,
so we can get it to the woods and get her mashed in.
We're gonna make this thing happen.
He's gonna be surprised at the end.
We're gonna do it. Let's make some cornbread.
[man on phone] the absinthe is unbelievable.
It's going amazing, man.
-Come on, man. You like it? -[man on phone] oh, everybody do.
-That's good. -[man on phone] I gotta hide my little stash.
[narrator] in iberia parish, louisiana,
richard's reputation as a distiller is drawing the attention
of demanding new orleans restaurant chefs.
Let's do a bananas foster.
I remember that from back in the day.
[man on phone] oh, yeah. That was the premier dessert.
And they said, "if you were eating banana foster,
you were in a four, five-star restaurant."
okay, well, the chef wants three gallons.
If you don't mind, I'll take two.
All right, I can do that.
This guy tells us that a chef wants our alcohol.
I mean, this is new orleans.
This could be a five-star chef.
That's kind of big right there.
Let me see what this all entails,
and I'll get back with you on the price.
[man on phone] I appreciate it.
Bananas foster is a real high-end dessert.
This is something that a chef prepares right on the side of the table.
I mean, it dates back to new orleans, way back in the 50s.
It was prepared with unsalted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, banana liqueur,
one banana per person, and rum.
So we're gonna use a spice rum as our base.
Man, this sugar's heavy, man.
[craig] like lifting weights.
Yeah, it's got molasses in it. That's why.
Today we're at the still site.
We're gonna start our mash in, we're gonna do a spice rum, our base spirit.
All right. That's that light stuff.
-That's the dark guy right there. -[craig] that's the dark one.
[richard] when we make rum, I mean, we always use brown sugar.
Go ahead and start it.
Darker brown sugars have more molasses sucked into them.
All right.
We don't wanna have too much of an overpowering presence of molasses here,
so we're just gonna use one-third of the dark brown sugars
as opposed to the light brown sugar.
I'm gonna drop this dark brown in here first.
[craig] all right.
[richard] cooking it down for a little bit.
This is the rich stuff.
-This is what's gonna give us the deep flavoring-- -[craig] deep caramelization.
[richard] all that complex stuff going on.
-[craig] we got one of these light ones. -[richard] pour this in.
[richard] this is gonna be delicate.
Tying really well with that dark brown sugar, unfiltered cane sugar.
Before we put the heat on, I just want to stir it up real good,
make sure nothing's sticking at the bottom,
'cause we ain't got no way to get down in there.
[craig chuckles] no.
See what that's looking like.
We'll add our seasoning. I say seasoning, but it's our spices.
That boy said we're gonna put some seasoning,
-like we're cooking. -[richard chuckles]
I swear, that boy is so cajun, yeah.
[richard laughs]
spice in louisiana, that's something that definitely doesn't scare us.
This is cloves, nutmeg, black peppercorn, cinnamon sticks.
And that's all we're gonna need.
Oh, yeah.
All right, let's light it up.
[craig] let's light it.
[richard] that's good.
Gonna boil this, let it sit,
and then we'll pitch the yeast when it gets to a good temperature.
[craig] I can smell that working already. Just heating up.
Oh, yeah. It's got a hint of spice to it.
But, I mean, this smells real good.
That brown sugar stands out big time in this right here.
Immediately, you can smell just candy.
Gonna kill this fire.
And we're gonna add a little bit more water to it.
I'm anxious to let this cool down,
'cause it smells awesome.
I mean, it smells like you're actually cooking something right now.
That's pretty much it.
[craig] that's it.
[richard] so this is cooled down enough, man.
We could pitch this yeast.
Look how pretty that is.
I like a yeast that'll fall like a grain of sand.
I'm gonna give that a good stir right there.
This molasses has so much of everything a yeast would need.
It even has a mineral content to it.
We should get a real strong alcohol out of this.
[craig] old, trusty cap, so...
-That's all we need. -[craig] that's all we need right there.
Ready to go.
[richard] she's ready to go.
We got everything mashed in.
We'll let it sit for a couple of days,
come back and get ready to run.
All right, cool. Come on. Let's get out of here, man.
[mark] I don't know what you've got in mind.
Ages in two months.
[digger] we could finish in 30 minutes
with this ultrasonic machine if it worked.
We've been asked for six gallons of barrel-finished rye whiskey.
That's not a far-fetched request,
other than he wants it in two months.
We don't have a lot of room to mess up here.
We did make a gallon-and-a-half more than the order's for.
We don't screw it up, that's mine and yours.
But you don't have a clue if this works or it don't.
Not an inkling.
Go find it. Good luck.
You know, two months is a big ask for a barrel-finished rye.
But I've got this ultrasonic cleaning machine.
I know it's here somewhere.
Look what I found.
So we'll see what the ultrasonic aging does
to liquor with some wood chips in it.
If this works, we have revolutionized the rapid aging world.
[mark] I just don't understand how this ultrasonic machine works.
[digger] well, we're going to try.
Ah.
[mark] you know, never, ever would we promise
six gallons of barrel-finished whiskey in two months.
But digger has an idea about ultrasonic aging.
Are we gonna leave it in the jars, dump the liquor in the--
no, I'm not gonna dump that liquor in there.
We'll use water just to get the sound waves into the jars.
The ultrasonic vibrations in liquid
causes the liquid to move in and out of crevices and pull debris out.
That's what tannins are in the wood.
It's a debris in there, if you will.
We're gonna chip this stuff up.
I'm going to put the barrel in the liquor.
I get the chips, we start putting them in the jars.
This should make the liquor move in and out of the chips,
and get that deep, rich mahogany color in there.
We'll see what it's gonna do.
I can see how it would work.
We'll crank it up this way.
30 minutes.
Makes a slight racket though, don't it?
If this ultrasonic vibration with wood chips and liquor works like I think it will,
then we may be on to the next big thing in the liquor finishing world.
Look how it's already changed. That's the color, look.
[mark] yeah, you can see that stuff moving around in there.
How about that?
This could change the whole industry as we know it now.
Ain't that something?
It's near dark enough. Pretty good.
I'm afraid it might be a little cloudy, though.
We can't have it looking that way. Damn it.
In the very short period of time that's passed here,
we're getting color,
but appears that there may be some dinginess
or a little bit of cloudiness coming with the color change.
This is a high-end liquor.
That's a deal breaker.
I'm telling you.
Taste that.
I mean, it's got the taste of a barrel-finished rye.
Wow.
[digger] but that clouding's unacceptable.
[mark] no, we can't have that.
We could strain them chips out there right now,
and I'd be happy with that.
But you can't sell it.
-You can't charge a premium price for this color. -You can't for cloudy liquor.
It's as good of a rye as you'd ever want to taste.
But if I saw it on the liquor store shelf, I'd keep going.
This little machine here, I think, is so efficient.
It's pulling the tannins and the oils out of those chips so strong.
-It's doing way more than natural convection does. -Right.
This thing's great.
The problem was just, we didn't clean the chips enough.
I may have not rinsed the chips and soaked them long enough
to really get all the dust particles out of there.
I'm gonna soak them for 36, 48 hours.
I'm thinking this thing works so good,
we're going to soak these chips for a good 48 hours,
I'm gonna rinse them three or four times,
try it again.
[mark] get them chips soaking.
We'll come back and try it again.
[mike] you ready to make some cornbread, jerry?
Well, I guess I'm ready for you to show me how to make cornbread.
You don't know how to?
You know, jerry, I think you can make some nuts.
But if people can take bananas and turn banana pudding into a drink,
why can't I turn jalapeno cornbread into a drink?
[jerry] here's my only question.
What's the advantage of using cornbread?
You're gonna be able to taste the crust, the smoke I'm gonna put in it.
We're gonna have some smoky, jalapeno cornbread liquor,
once we're all said and done.
That sounds like that might be appetizable there.
[mike] oh, yeah, it's gonna be good.
You tell me you don't know how to make cornbread.
I'm willing to learn, if you're willing to show me.
How the hell does somebody grow up in south
and call himself a mountain man,
and don't even know how to make a damn pone of cornbread?
Just a few simple ingredients I like to use.
You gotta have your flour, your sugar and your cornmeal,
and most of all, some good old homegrown rooster bullets.
Hell, the boy can't even boil water.
He's always just sitting on the couch and letting mama bring it to him.
So, here's ol' dad.
I'll do the cooking too, I reckon.
I wanna do 20 pones of cornbread.
-Pond? -Pone.
What the hell's a "pone"?
It's a pone, like a--
a pan?
It's made in a pan, but we call it a pone of cornbread, you know.
Pone bread.
What part of the world they talk like that?
Mississippi.
-Okay. That explains everything. -[mike] all right.
[mike] jerry, he don't even know what the damn word "pone" means.
I'm like, "damn, son. You ain't never heard of a pone before?"
-it's a pone. -[jerry] oh, a pone.
[mike] a pone of cornbread.
Add a little bit of mustard.
In the south, we always put a little mustard on a lot of stuff.
So a little bit of the secret ingredient, my house-blend seasoning.
This special recipe with the cornbread that I'm making,
it's come down from my mom and my grandmother.
I'm gonna try to replicate that and do it as close as I can.
I've got my skillets greased,
little liquid butter until that gets hot enough
to start frying the bottom of the cornbread.
I pour my batter in here, let that cook on the bottom a little bit,
let it start bubbling and crisping up around the edges.
Then I'll take it and transfer it over to the pellet smoker.
That's where we'll finish the process of baking the cornbread.
That a good smoked cornbread there.
[mike] yeah, buddy.
You can't go wrong with smoke.
There's a difference between a bag of cornmeal
and some good old baked cornbread.
All your seasonings, your butter, your little bit of sugar.
And then of course, you're gonna use a cast iron skillet
that's made nothing but cornbread for almost 100 years.
See how pretty that pone is.
[jerry] that's a pone of cornbread.
And there's just nothing like it.
Put a little of this melty butter on there.
See how that tastes.
It's gonna be hot now.
[chuckles] damn it.
Mmm.
Tastes like good cornbread, don't it?
Yeah, if we can get that flavor right there in some alcohol,
I'll be impressed.
Gonna be good.
[jerry] that crunchy crust on the bottom has got a whole different unique flavor.
A whole different taste. That's what I'm talking about, that right there.
I can actually taste a little bit of the smoky flavor in that, too.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
This cornbread is out of damn world good.
We gonna need at least 20 pones of cornbread,
so that's a lot of cooking.
And then we got to get it to the woods and get it all mashed in.
There we go.
[richard] oh, look. We got a little baby alligator right here.
It's looking at us, man, like it's hungry.
[craig] you know, I want to eat him.
So we're back at the still site today.
We're gonna check on our mash.
This is our spice rum,
our base spirit for our banana foster.
Oh, yeah. That black peppercorn, man.
I can smell that in there really good right now.
It sucked up a lot of that molasses that yeast went after,
and it came back out in the alcohol.
Definitely some high-proof stuff,
and that's what we need for where we're going next.
We're gonna take this liquor and we're gonna marry it into another banana liquor,
that we're gonna pay just as much attention to and put just as much love in.
That's gonna keep a consistent flavor
all the way through the process, man.
[craig] let's run this.
Be a litlle bit more humble.
A chef wants our alcohol.
[craig] the captain, his rum,
he's not giving it to you till it's good.
[richard] we don't wanna just fly this one over the coupe,
just because no one else has done it.
We want to do this right.
We're gonna give him a run for his money.
He's gonna be surprised.
It's getting real hot.
We should be running anytime now.
[craig] yeah, she's running now.
[richard] come on. We're starting to run?
Oh, yeah. There she goes.
That's a pretty little stream.
[craig] I can smell all that spice coming out of there.
I knew that peppercorn was gonna do something good 'cause I smell it.
I smell a little cinnamon up here.
Yeah, that cinnamon is coming through, too.
And that nutmeg, man.
All right.
I'm gonna take off these heads real quick, man.
-All right. -That's heads.
Is it cool?
Is it hot?
Hot damn, man.
Yeah, it's hot.
-A little spicy-- -[craig] that' what we wanted though.
Yeah, we wanted some spice.
Now that we have our base spirit to start off with,
we gotta go ahead and fine tune our recipe.
Come on. Let's get out of here, man.
[craig] we gotta get some bananas.
[richard] yeah, we gotta get all kinds of stuff.
[mark] well, I have faith.
[digger] I have got faith.
The first attempt at this ultrasonic aging of whiskey
turned out very cloudy.
That clouding's unacceptable.
Well, we'll fix it.
So we're gonna try again.
These chips here, how long have you been soaking them?
[digger] they've been on 48 hours.
On our first try, we just soaked the chips for a couple of hours.
This time, I've soaked the chips for about 48 hours,
and we're putting them in cheesecloth to limit their movement.
I'm hoping that that will prevent any extra tannins and particulate coming out.
And hopefully, it won't cloud this time.
Get us a couple of three jars of corn liquor and we'll see what we can do at that.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
We can't mess up no more of this.
We always have corn liquor on hand.
We're not gonna take a chance on clouding up the rye at this point.
[digger] we don't wanna waste our six gallons of liquor.
We're gonna use some corn liquor.
We've got an ample supply, so we can spare more of it than we can this rye.
Get that boy running.
It's moving them around.
This works, puss, we're golden.
-If it don't then... -We are in a pickle.
We got a sale on the line,
and we need to get this liquor out the door.
We'll keep our fingers crossed this is gonna work.
Let's go get us a sandwich and then come back.
[mike] now, we gonna get this doggone stuff crumbled up, make some cornbread liquor.
We even got our pones of cornbread done.
We got them smoked, cooked, baked.
We're ready to go mash these things in.
Heck yes.
That's a good clean barrel.
Let's get this stuff out here, and start crumbling it up.
What do you think?
Well, this is a pone of cornbread,
and this is what we're mashing in.
We're just hoping to bring this flavor out of this cornbread
into a clear jar of liquor.
And then sooner or later,
of course, infuse it with a little bit of jalapeno flavor.
It's going to taste a whole lot different than regular corn shine.
It's gonna be good, my bud.
We're just gonna crumble them up,
put them in the barrel,
stir them in with hot water and sugar,
fill it up, yeast it in,
and hope it does its thing.
I can't wait to see what it's gonna taste like.
I'm hoping it's gonna taste like cornbread.
It should.
-We got enough of it in here, don't we? -[jerry] we sure do.
[mike] get some water going.
Get it in a bucket.
Shall I go ahead and light up?
Yeah. We'll go ahead and strike a fire under it.
Let it be warming up.
-[mike] yeah, buddy. -[jerry] oh, yeah!
[mike] we're heating some water up.
[jerry] let it kinda steep in a little bit.
[mike] let it steep in somewhat.
As soon as the hot water hits this crumbled up cornbread,
it starts steaming up in your face,
that's all you can smell.
It's just cornbread, literally.
[jerry] I'm gonna tell you what right now.
It's smelling awful doggone good.
Taste comes out as good as the aromas are coming out,
we'll be in good shape.
[mike] we're mashing it in in this white oak charred barrel.
We believe that this american white oak charred barrel
is going to add a little more depth of flavor into the cornbread.
You know, give it that charred flavor.
I just believe it's gonna give it that little extra help that we need.
All right, we'll lay the sugar to it.
I mean, it smells just like granny baking cornbread with the kitchen window open,
with the wind blowing in the evening.
Man, this stuff is going all through the woods.
It smells so delicious.
This is your idea.
I'll let you sauce it up here.
I'll sauce it up, brother.
I don't mind one bit.
Now, all we've got to do is just pitch our yeast and let this stuff work off,
and come back in here in a few days and get ready to run it off.
I say that ought to do its thing.
Don't you reckon?
Let her layer. Cap her off.
I'm gonna do away with these old baggy bags here.
Always feels good to make something new and exciting.
You know, something that you never done
because you got something to look forward to.
The what-if's and, "if it don't turn out right,"
or, "you may strike gold on this particular recipe."
that's what I get excited about is doing something new.
Let them burn up a minute.
We'll get the heck out of here.
[mark] hopefully, we got some beautiful golden brown liquor.
[digger] let's look at it.
Digger and I, we left these jars to ultrasonic age on their own.
Hopefully, we're going to come back to three pretty aged, clear jars of corn liquor.
Then, we'll move back to the rye.
That ain't gonna count, puss.
[digger] no good.
It's a bust again.
It's clouded up probably worse than it was the first time.
-[mark] oh, yeah. Look at that crap in there. -[digger] yeah.
[digger] looks like somebody walked through a pond.
It looks like mud floating around in there.
It's supposed to be crystal clear with nothing floating around in there.
[mark] it's too cloudy.
Damn it.
Man, I had a lot of faith in this thing.
It's gotta be shaking too much of that dust out of these chips.
Well, we've been soaking them.
-I mean-- -maybe the glass magnifies the vibrations.
What are you saying?
This glass may be acting like a reed on a saxophone or something.
It's making the vibration louder in there.
Well, we've done it two times in jars.
Let's eliminate the glass.
And put it right in here?
Direct.
Digger makes a suggestion that we just pour liquor
in the basin of the ultrasonic machine itself.
Pour the liquor straight in there and put the chips in it and let it go.
-Okay. -Get this rascal emptied out, and I'll get that corn liquor.
My theory is, maybe these jars are acting like your eardrum.
Maybe the glass is acting like an amplifier,
and the sound waves are actually getting stronger inside the jar.
[mark] maybe this is the solution, maybe it's not.
But we're fixing to find out.
-So what are we doing here today, man? -[richard] we're gonna cook.
So today, we're at the still site
and we're gonna make a bananas foster.
I figured the best way to tackle this monster
is to get our taste designed around it and acclimate our palate to it.
We got some banana liqueur.
New orleans, that's a big, big market to be dealing with.
I don't wanna have to let down a client in new orleans.
We got some ice cream.
The number one thing that we stand to lose is our reputation.
You know, someone having the ability to say they couldn't do it.
We got our bananas, our butter, brown sugar.
We're ready to go.
We're gonna make sure that we wow this guy.
I'm gonna get this pan nice and hot.
[craig] why are we not going to a restaurant or something and eat this, man?
I could wrap my head around an idea by tasting it from somebody else,
but when I do it, I can wrap myself all the way around.
So you got light brown, dark brown and some--
[craig] oh, okay. I see the dark right there.
[richard] dark brown sugar.
Right now, I need you to take those bananas and peel them.
We're gonna caramelize these sugars down.
A nice ratio of butter and sugar.
[craig] chef homeboy you are.
[chuckles]
[richard] what's cooking is the alcohol off of this good rum that we got going on here.
Just need to get some more banana in.
All these flavors are merging together.
Got some ice cream.
To be able to enjoy the ice cream, and the bananas,
and the caramelized sugar, and everything else that's in this,
the love, the attention, the cinnamon, the detail, everything.
This looks good.
They got liquor and ice cream.
-How is it? -[richard] man, that's good.
Really is good. It's excellent.
Man, you gotta love your job, right?
But we still have one problem.
What's that?
How do we carry over all these flavors into some shine?
We're adding banana, brown and dark sugars.
Now, this creamy texture, this buttery stuff that we taste is another element.
We have to make sure that our mash covers every flavor possible.
And some of those are taboo to us.
Butter and ice cream, we can't ferment those things,
so we have to make sure that we represent these flavors
with something that can substitute them very well.
There's a couple of different nuts that we could use
that will replicate this creamy texture and taste.
[craig] like what?
Walnuts are one of them. Hazelnuts, almonds.
Now, we gotta figure out ingredients, the bananas, the nuts and everything else.
There's a lot of moving parts in this.
This is just the beginning. We got a long way to go.
Man, that's good.
We're gonna give this high-end dessert a high-end liquor appeal
and get a high-end price tag with it also.
We're gonna give them a bananas foster in a bottle.
I can't wait to drink that, boy.
This stuff's good, man.
[craig] I know.
We got a lot of cleaning up to do here.
Banana foster milkshake.
Where are you going? I got the keys.
[mike] well, it's a pretty day to be in the woods, ain't it, jerry?
[jerry] yes, sir.
[mike singing] ♪ fine time to run some liquor ♪
we're on our way to the still site.
We're ready to run some cornbread mash now.
Lookie, there.
[jerry] flat, ain't it?
[mike] yeah, boy.
Mmm.
-Some of that cornbread taste is there. -Phew.
I can get me a jar of that.
Let's pump it over, man.
I'm ready to fire this bad boy up.
You see the cornbread floating in there,
it's worked off.
It's ready to rock and roll.
We got to just kind of pump it over, fire this thing up,
and see what we get.
-Drop her in. -Man, it flies.
With the end result,
we want to do a jalapeno cornbread.
So we gotta run this off, get some good cornbread liquor,
and then start post-flavoring our jalapenos.
You know, adding jalapenos and stuff in,
that's gonna be a whole another trial there.
Jerry don't seem to be so...
Optimistic about it.
...Optimistic about how the--
damn, we're overflowing.
[jerry] I'm gonna fill these pellets up.
-[mike] you got it full? -[jerry] yeah, I got it full.
[mike] all right. There she flies.
[chuckles] feels good to be back over here in tennessee
burning this old barrel, doesn't it?
It burns good.
But one bad thing about it,
I can't stand how long it takes to heat this barrel up.
We're going to be here half the damn night on this.
[jerry] now, we just hurry up and wait.
Well, we're definitely moonshining
under the moonlight tonight, ain't we?
[mike] yee-haw. She's getting warm right up in here, bro.
[jerry] get out our money pot there.
What kind of crazy nuthead, you think's gonna buy something like this?
Somebody nuts like me.
I hope you're right,
'cause if we ruin this good liquor with all that jalapeno spicy junk,
-I'm gonna be upset. -[chuckles]
come on, man.
You know, there's more stuff in life than damn sugar and sweet cakes.
Well, I understand that, but you ain't got to hurt to eat.
Well, I don't hurt when I eat.
-I enjoy it. --So when you cry, and your face hurts,
-oh, it feels good. -You kinda gag and carry on, that ain't hurting?
I love to hurt and burn like that and cry.
You'll fit perfectly in hell, won't you?
[bleep] I'll kick the devil out, son.
[chuckles]
[mike] there we go, baby. We got liquor.
[jerry] yes, sir.
We get all them tannin heads out of there.
I bet we'll have a damn good run of liquor.
We spent damn hours on end.
We started stuff way before dark,
but we finally got liquor coming out the money spout.
Give the devil his cut.
This stuff is smelling like damn cornbread as we're speaking.
[jerry] son, I'm telling you what.
Little pat of butter, and son, you'd be on the table.
[mike] oh, my gosh. That's good stuff.
[jerry] that's really good, man.
You can taste that crust, that smoky pecan wood we put in there.
It's in there, ain't it?
I just gotta figure out how we're gonna post-flavor with the jalapenos.
We're gonna have to have some high-proof alcohol,
break the fibers and the capsaicin,
and pull all of it out of the cells.
I've got a 160, 165 proof.
I think we're gonna need to be 180, 190 proof.
So how you figure we do that?
I got the perfect idea.
[digger] let me get them two jugs of corn liquor.
[mark] now, this is a stainless steel vat.
It will impart no cloudiness, it will impart no taste.
Our last ditch effort,
we're gonna put the liquor straight into the pan
on this ultrasonic cleaning machine,
and then put chips in there floating around.
We ain't gonna mess with this rye liquor.
We gotta have them six gallons for sure.
That got my society finger.
We're just going to use corn liquor to experiment.
We only have six gallons of the unaged rye left,
and that is what our order is for.
I think you might be on to something here.
I mean, we've tried everything else we know to try.
This either works or we're done with this thing.
Well, moment of truth.
Look at that. Damn.
[mark] well, that looks different than anything we've done with it yet.
[digger] we go ahead and fire the machine up before we put any chips in,
and just immediately it turns milky white.
Still a little smoke bombs in there.
[mark] what's causing that?
[digger] well, it cleared up though, just then.
It just got little poofs here and there.
You know, these little old cyclones,
they're kind of like little ghosts running around in there.
They just all of a sudden form, they'll swirl around and they'll travel off.
It looks like little sperm swimming away.
I don't believe I'd have compared it to that.
Well, look at it.
[digger] really weird watching them,
but it really gives you an indication
of what these vibrations or sound waves are doing.
Well, let's drop some chips in there.
These chips, they're absolutely as clean as they're gonna get.
They've been soaking for several days.
Let's let it run for a few minutes and see what we got.
You know, this has been a lot of work, but it's worth the effort.
If this thing works, this could change the whole industry as we know it now.
That right there is widow maker.
I'm gonna get rid of it.
And I'm gonna put it up between the forks of that there tree, right yonder.
[jerry] I bet you don't even hit that tree.
I bet you hit this tree over here, on this side.
All right, so if I'm halfway over to the left,
-you gotta be better than halfway. -I win.
-No. No, listen. -[jerry] better than halfway.
You're gonna put it in the forks of the tree.
You at least need to be halfway close to it.
Bet you a steak dinner you don't even hit that tree up there.
You got a bet. If I hit it, I win.
-You hit it, you definitely win. -All right.
[chainsaw whirring]
[chuckles] I put it over.
You didn't put it in the fork of that tree, though.
I hit the damn limb.
[jerry] oh, the wind blew them limbs.
You owe me a steak dinner, jerry.
[jerry] you still didn't hit it, though.
[mike chuckles]
[mike] damn, son. We look like a bunch of mad scientists.
Me and jerry, we got through running our cornbread shine.
It's some really good stuff.
You sure we can make it higher proof alcohol?
Now, all we gotta do is make high-proofed alcohol.
It's gonna pull and extract the capsaicin in the flavor for those peppers.
And then infuse our jalapeno oil,
and make some good jalapeno cornbread shine.
[jerry] basically, what we got here is what they call an apparatus.
Basically, it's just a glass still
that does everything on a smaller volume.
That apparatus is a miniature glass still.
We'll be able to take some high proof that we have,
to be able to bump it up to the higher proof that we need,
to be able to pull that flavor out of those peppers.
We need to be up around 180 to 190 proof.
[mike] I'm not really sure what the proof is on this.
Let's see what that is.
165. With the still there, we shouldn't have no trouble hitting that number.
No. We need to ground these peppers before we get things really rolling.
[mike] we took fresh jalapeno, dried them out.
Going to grind them up.
[jerry] once ground up into a powder,
it's a lot easier for the alcohol to break down the powder
than it would be just a full piece of pepper.
Smell that. Take a whiff of it.
I don't think so.
I know what that's--
-[chokes and coughs] -[jerry] yeah.
[jerry] we got our peppers ground down,
and basically, our high proof, we'll dump right in on the powder,
make a tincture, we're gonna add it back to our alcohol.
So that's why we're using the high-proof alcohol,
to actually start that process out.
[mike] light that damn still up, son.
[jerry] turn the hose on.
[mike] we've done a lot of runs in our time,
but we've never been able to actually look inside the still itself.
[jerry] this is pretty cool. I never get to actually watch alcohol boil.
We're just looking for a subtle note of jalapeno flavor
with a little warmth to the throat,
and finished with that sweet cornbread on the back.
There we go.
[jerry] there we are.
[chuckles] we made it, brother.
We got her going.
[mike] we're just gonna let that fill up
and let that stuff start extracting out.
You know, stir it up, stir it around,
get that good color, then we'll strain it.
If I just ground all these peppers up into a powder
and started mixing it in my alcohol,
yes, you'd have that flavor,
but you're gonna have all these floaties and all these particles
in your alcohol that you don't need.
[jerry] that's some green goodness there.
[mike] the green goblin.
It's the fuzz now. Whoo!
Okay, with that face, I damn sure aren't trying it.
It feels like yellow jackets in your mouth,
but it's got a phenomenal flavor.
I'm gonna do a vial.
[jerry] whoa! Whoa!
-What are you doing? -I know.
-Now listen to me now. We gotta make it. -Oh, my god.
[jerry] I can see that clear to the bottom now.
Well, you gotta see it.
-Yeah, she's right. -[jerry] a little too much, huh?
No.
Now, by god, that's right.
[sputters]
[mike] what the hell's wrong with you?
-Right? -[mike] hell, yeah. That's right for me.
-No, dude. That is [bleep] just wrong is what that is. -Jerry!
No!
You know, subtle jalapeno flavor is a lot different with me than it is with jerry.
One dropper full to each jar is perfect.
But there's a lot of people out there in the world like me.
They're gonna want this stuff.
Man, I'm behind you.
You say you can sell it.
I can do it, brother.
You know, I'm right there behind you to do it.
I'll tell you what. This stuff has turned out phenomenally.
It's at the right balance of heat and taste
of the jalapeno and the cornbread.
You can taste all notes coming through each jar of this stuff.
I'm going to find us a buyer and we'll make money, baby.
Jalapeno cornbread.
It's going out the door. I promise you.
Well, it's quit.
[mark] let's see what we got.
This is our last ditch effort on this ultrasonic aging.
Put the liquor straight into the pan,
if it doesn't work on this one, this is the third strike, we're out.
It's going to be cloudy.
[mark] no, it ain't.
-Look at that. -[digger] well, that color is right.
The color is really good.
I pulled the lid off, and on first sight, it looks great.
[digger] can't tell much about the cloud yet.
Let's run her down in this rascal here. Color is perfect.
I don't see anything that's telling us we've gone wrong yet.
[mark] we may be on to something here, puss.
[digger] I get a bottle, drop the hose down in it, it fills up,
put the lid on.
-No. -Nope.
[digger] we hold that bottle up and it looks like pond water.
Cloudy, no good.
[mark] this is fine for us to drink, but we can't sell that.
[digger] I know that there's nothing wrong with this whiskey,
but as far as selling it, no, that's not an option.
[mark] it don't like that vibration, that sound wave.
That ain't no good.
Looks like stuff swirling around.
And the ultrasonic machine itself has some adverse effect
either on the liquor, on the chips, or a combination of the two.
Well, you know what we've done here, don't you?
We screwed up some more liquor.
[chuckles] we messed up two more gallons of liquor.
Ultrasonic aging is a bust.
I'm not too proud and I'm not too big to know when I'm whooped.
And when it comes to ultrasonic aging whiskey, I'm whooped.
We've done everything in our power to give this thing a chance to work.
There ain't no magic wand for aging liquor.
[mark] you know, we was looking for a shortcut.
Now, we're really under the gun.
I got no idea where we go from here,
-except do what we know works. -Yeah.
So we're going back to the old tried and true method.
We're going to get it into jugs as quickly as possible with a big bunch of chips.
We messed up enough liquor.
[mark] we're gonna babysit this liquor for a month.
Every day, we'll just ease up here and we'll shake this thing,
keep it moving.
[digger] we'll put it in a small barrel for a few weeks,
and then it truly is barrel-finished.
It's gonna be more workhorse.
But we promised we'd get this liquor in two months,
and we're gonna do it.
Go with what you know.
Ain't no way around it.
You know, we've just bought ourself a little more work.
But it could be a big shot in the arm down the road with these clients
if it's a good product.
So we gotta do what we do to make it the best it can be.